After fleeing from Aceh, one family ekes out a living

After fleeing from Aceh, one family ekes out a living

By Arief S.S.

JAKARTA (JP): Drops of sweat beaded on Karsi's forehead. The
young woman sat in front of a machine dexterously making bottle
caps. Behind her was her husband, Sarmin, bare-chested, doing the
same job.

"We are doing this to survive," said Karsi.

Everyone must work to earn a living. What distinguishes them
from the rest of the community is the fact that they are refugees
from Aceh. They are staying in a house made of iron sheeting
somewhere in Srengseng, West Jakarta along with their extended
family of 21 people.

"We do not know how long we must stay here. Our children are
still small but Aceh is still dangerous," said Karsi, a mother of
four in her late 20s.

Karsi and her husband have been doing this job for six months.
They work seven days a week. Every day they start at daybreak and
do not stop until night falls. Never before had they imagined
living in such circumstances and neither had Salia and Turima,
her younger sisters, or their father, 58-year-old Waridi.

They were originally from Sambang village, Central Java. In
1982, Waridi asked his wife, Tukiyem, and his five children to
move to Aceh and earn a living farming in the province, dubbed
the Veranda of Mecca.

"I was poor and had nothing," Waridi said.

As a resettled person, Waridi and his two grown children, were
each granted a two-hectare plot of land in Lhoksukon, Lhokseumawe
district, North Aceh. "I planted cassava, bananas and paddy. My
wife took care of the younger kids at home," he said. In his new
home, Waridi fathered another child.

They enjoyed their new life until 1999, when most Acehnese
demanded independence from Indonesia. Killings were the order of
the day, committed by both sides, the Free Aceh Movement and the
security forces. During these turbulent times, two of their
family were murdered.

"My brother-in-law and his younger sibling were lost while
selling tofu in the market. People in the market said they were
whacked to death by a group of unidentified people," Karsi said,
"Their bodies have never been found, though."

As the violence continued to worsen, in August 1999, Karsi,
her husband and their four children fled to their home village in
Central Java.

"As we had only Rp 800,000 cash, only our own family could
flee. When we arrived in Java, we had only Rp 50,000 left," he
said. "Father (Waridi) and our other relatives remained in Aceh
because they had no money to come to Java," he added.

Those remaining in Aceh refused to be accommodated in a
refugee camp. "We didn't want to stay there. It's a miserable
place. A family gets only one cup of rice a day, you know. There
is no clean water to drink," said Waridi.

In uncertain circumstances, Waridi and his family continued to
work on their farm, selling their products at the market. It took
them four months to collect Rp 2.5 million, enough money to take
them to Java.

"I had to sell my house and when I got to Kebumen I had
practically no money left," said Waridi, now having 13
grandchildren. His wife died in 1998 of heart failure.

"However, my second child, Rasminem, and her two children
remain in Lhoksukon. She will stay there until she has news about
her missing husband," he said.

After staying in Kebumen for a few months with irregular work,
Waridi and his family decided to try their luck in Jakarta. Here
they had to spend periods of uncertainty before they could get a
job. They work at a yard where scrap iron sheeting is collected
for making tin. While working here, Waridi said they continue to
pin their hopes on the government opening up a new resettlement
area in Riau, Jambi or Bengkulu.

"My husband and I actually would like to return to Aceh
because we really feel at home there," said Karsi, who went to
Aceh when she was 7.

"Especially because Mirah (pointing to her 4.5-year-old child)
has a deep longing for Rasminem's child and her other friends
there," she explained.

These refugees said they earned only a little. Bottle caps are
sold at Rp 450/kg. Waridi said in a day he, and his sons-in-law,
Sarmin and Simin could each make some 30 kg of bottle caps. Karsi
and her younger sisters could make 30 kgs of bottle caps in two
days.

"I have to take care of my small children," Karsi said. "If my
children are being difficult, it will take me three days to
produce that much."

"We really have a difficult life here. We have to buy
vegetables from the vegetable hawker on credit," Karsi said. "We
pay our debt at the end of the month but then we have to buy on
credit again in the following days."